For many years, the problem of disposability has plagued industries which provide disposable items, such as, diapers, wet wipes, incontinent garments and feminine care products. While much headway has been made in addressing this problem, one of the weak links has been the inability to create an economical coherent fibrous web, which will readily dissolve or disintegrate in water, but still have sufficient in-use strength. See, for example, U.K. patent disclosure 2,241,373 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,233. Without such a product, the ability of the user to dispose of the product by flushing it down the toilet is greatly reduced, if not eliminated. Furthermore, the ability of the product to disintegrate in a landfill is quite limited because a large portion of the product components, which may well be biodegradable or photodegradable, are encapsulated in or bound together by plastic which degrades over a long period of time, if at all. Accordingly, if the plastic disintegrated in the presence of water, the internal components could degrade as a result of the rupture of the plastic encapsulation or binding.
Disposable products, such as diapers, feminine care products and adult incontinent care products may be made to be disposed by flushing down toilets. Usually such products comprise a body side liner which must rapidly pass fluids, such as urine or menses, so that the fluid may be absorbed by an absorbent core of the product. Typically, the body side liner may be a coherent fibrous web, which desirably possesses a number of characteristics, such as softness and flexibility. The fibrous web of the body side liner material may be typically formed by wet or dry (air) laying a generally random plurality of fibers and joining them together to form a coherent web with a binder compositions. Past binder compositions have preformed this function well. However, fibrous webs comprising these compositions tended to be non-dispersible and present problems in typical household sanitation systems.
Recent binder compositions have been developed which can be more dispersible and are more environmentally responsible than past binder compositions. One class of binder compositions includes polymeric materials having inverse solubility in water. These binder compositions are insoluble in warm water, but are soluble in cold water, such as found in a toilet. It is well known that a number of polymers exhibit cloud points or inverse solubility properties in aqueous media. These polymers have been cited in several publications for various applications, including (1) as evaporation retarders (JP 6207162); (2) as temperature sensitive compositions, which are useful as temperature indicators due to a sharp color change associated with a corresponding temperature change (JP 6192527); (3) as heat sensitive materials that are opaque at a specific temperature and become transparent when cooled to below the specific temperature (JP 51003248 and JP 81035703); (4) as wound dressings with good absorbing characteristics and easy removal (JP 6233809); and (5) as materials in flushable personal care products (U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,913, issued to Richard S. Yeo on Apr. 23, 1996 and assigned to Kimberly-Clark Corporation).
Other recent binders of interest include a class of binders, which are ion-sensitive. Several U.S. and European patents assigned to Lion Corporation of Tokyo, Japan, disclose ion-sensitive polymers comprising acrylic acid and alkyl or aryl acrylates. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,312,883, 5,317,063 and 5,384,189, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, as well as, European Pat. No. 608460A1. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,883, terpolymers are disclosed as suitable binders for flushable nonwoven webs. The disclosed acrylic acid-based terpolymers, which comprise partially neutralized acrylic acid, butyl acrylate and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, are suitable binders for use in flushable nonwoven webs in some parts of the world. However, because of the presence of a small amount of sodium acrylate in the partially neutralized terpolymer, these binders fail to disperse in water containing more than about 15 ppm Ca2+ and Mg2+. When placed in water containing more than about 15 ppm Ca2+ and/or Mg2+ ions, nonwoven webs using the above-described binders maintain a tensile strength greater than 30 g/in, which negatively affects the “dispersibility” of the web. The proposed mechanism for the failure is that each calcium ion binds with two carboxylate groups either intramolecularly or intermolecularly. Intramolecular association causes the polymer chain to coil up, which eventually leads to polymer precipitation. Intermolecular association yields crosslinking. Whether intramolecular or intermolecular associations are taking place, the terpolymer is not soluble in water containing more than about 15 ppm Ca2+ and/or Mg2+. Due to the strong interaction between calcium ions and the carboxylate groups of the terpolymer, dissociation of the complex is highly unlikely because this association is irreversible. Therefore, the above-described polymer that has been exposed to a high Ca2+ and/or Mg2+ concentration solution will not disperse in water even if the calcium concentration decreases. This limits the application of the polymer as a flushable binder material because most areas across the U.S. have hard water, which contains more than 15 ppm Ca2+ and/or Mg2+.
In a co-pending application assigned to Kimberly Clark; i.e., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/223,999, filed Dec. 31, 1998, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, there is disclosed a modification of the acrylic acid terpolymers of the above-referenced patents to Lion Corporation. Specifically, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/223,999 discloses a sulfonate anion modified acrylic acid terpolymers which has improved dispersibility in relatively hard water; e.g., up to 200 ppm Ca2+ and/or Mg2+, compared to the unmodified Lion polymers. The wetted sheet is flexible and soft. However, the Lion Corporation ion-sensitive polymers of the above-referenced patents and the sulfonate anion modified acrylic acid terpolymers of the co-pending application, when used as binders for personal care products, such as wet wipes, typically have reduced initial sheet wettability, increased dry sheet stiffness, increased sheet stickiness, reduced binder sprayability and relatively high product cost.
Another approach to dispersible personal care products is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,281,306 to Kao Corporation of Tokyo, Japan. This patent discloses a water-disintegratable cleansing sheet; i.e., wet wipe, comprising water-dispersible fibers treated with a water-soluble binder having a carboxyl group. The cleansing sheet is treated with a cleansing agent containing 5%-95% of a water-compatible organic solvent, a salt and 95%-5% water. A preferred organic solvent is propylene glycol. The cleansing sheet retains wet strength and does not disperse in the organic solvent-based cleansing agent, but disperses in water. However, because of the high viscosity of carboxymethylcellulose, which makes it difficult to apply to fibrous webs, the presence of an organic solvent, and the sensitivity to hard water, the composition of this patent has little commercial applicability.
Although many patents disclose various ion and temperature sensitive compositions for water-dispersible or flushable materials, there exists a need for dispersible products possessing softness, flexibility, three dimensionality, and resiliency; wicking and structural integrity in the presence of body fluids (including feces) at body temperature; and true fiber dispersion after toilet flushing so that product does not become entangled with tree roots or at bends in sewer pipes. Moreover, there is a need in the art for flushable products having water-dispersibility in all areas of the world, including soft and hard water areas. Furthermore, there is a need for water-dispersible binders that do not reduce wettability of product with which they are used and are sprayable for relatively easy and uniform application to and penetration into products. Finally, there is a need for water-dispersible, flushable wet wipes that are stable during storage and retain a desired level of wet strength during use and are wetted with a wetting composition that is relatively free, or is substantially free, of organic solvents. Such a product is needed at a reasonable cost without compromising product safety and environmental concerns, something that past products have failed to do.